


Chooser of the Slain

by ruff_ethereal



Category: Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero
Genre: Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Android!Penn, Blood and Violence, Established Relationship, Gen, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:31:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4129741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As it turns out, Penn wasn't the only highly advanced android left in existence. There was one more prototype, as always happened, one that Rippen got his hands on.</p><p>Sashi wants them destroyed.</p><p>Penn wants them freed, just like him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chooser of the Slain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radiowrittenheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowrittenheart/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).
  * Inspired by [in the end, i wanna be standing at the beginning with you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4017457) by [radiowrittenheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowrittenheart/pseuds/radiowrittenheart). 
  * Inspired by [Does This Unit Have A Soul?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4030249) by [ruff_ethereal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal). 



> Based on an AU where Penn is a highly advanced android. Not much Penashi here, but the two of them are still canonically together.
> 
> Considered a spin-off from "Does This Unit Have A Soul?" rather than a proper sequel.

“Fight me!”

The fight had been unnerving to watch when it started, now it was just horrifying. Boone had long turned away, futilely covered his eyes and his ears to try and block out the nightmare happening before his eyes. Sashi turned away every few seconds before she wrenched her eyes back, cringed, and regretted every single time she did it.

Penn just watched, that same unchanging look of determination on his face. Like his creators had intended him to, he could turn off now useless emotions like fear, pain, and his sense of self-preservation.

The other android pulled back, their hands dripping with Penn's “blood,” his artificial skin and his internal workings falling away from their fingers. They were Rippen's minion, the last prototype android, the one that hadn't been destroyed like all the others at the factory.

They eyed Penn; their opponent was badly damaged, “on their last legs” as an organic might say. And yet still, he would not move.

“Fight me!” They cried.

“No.” Penn croaked. His badly mangled vocal systems cracked and sparked, stray wires and destroyed parts warping his voice.

Rippen's android pulled back into a combat stance. The unit had not sustained a single hit, but their limbs shook violently, their breath came out haggard and laboured.

“Now's your chance!” Rippen screamed. “Finish off this fool, once and for all!”

The android didn't listen. They stared at their opponent, looked at the full extent of their damage. In the beginning they had thought he was going to lead them into a trap, wait for them to start the assault before they turned the tables on them, but all Penn had done was let them wail on him, shred him to pieces, destroy him bit by bit…

And still, he was doing nothing to stop them or defend himself.

Their processors whirred at top speed. They used every last bit of computing power it had, tried to figure out their opponent's motivations, and failed. 

“Why won't you fight me?!” They screamed.

The anger was gone. Instead, confusion. Fear. Regret? It was hard to tell.

“I told you…” Penn mumbled. “You're. Like. Me… You're. Better. Than. Thi--”

Penn wobbled. He fell onto his back, what little metal structures and artifical organs were left in him crumpling and breaking, his remaining limbs splayed out at disturbing angles.

Rippen laughed. _“Yes!_ Finally! Rid me of that robotic redheaded menace! _Now!_ ”

The android didn't follow. They ran Penn's last words through their head, consulted every last database they owned, double-checked all the data they had thus gathered on them--

“ _Don't you get it?!”_

They snapped their head to Sashi. Her face was red—signs of anger. Her fists were balled—signs of aggression. Her tears poured down her cheeks—signs of grief.

They tried to study her face, try to find some clue into the last piece of this puzzle.

Sashi sucked in a breath. She pressed the hidden button on her specs, projected a hologram of the mission briefing. “Our mission is to stop Rippen from using you to take over this dimension! You're an android, like Penn—the _very last one,_ all thanks to you! It would have been SO easy for him to destroy you, too, but he didn't! You know why?!”

The android stared, their expression blank. Then, they slowly shook their head.

“Because he became better than this! He became more than a mindless killing machine! And he tried to tell _you_ that you can, too, but you wouldn't _listen!_ ”

The android snapped their head back to Penn. Though to the others, it might look like he was dead, his vital systems were still functioning. Barely.

They rushed over to Penn and knelt by his side, eyes scanning every inch of him.

“What are you doing?!” Sashi screamed. “Finishing the job?!”

The android didn't answer. There were far too many damaged components in Penn, primary, secondary, and redundant. No replacement parts available.

Unless...

They ignored the chaos that suddenly erupted as they started tearing out pieces of their own body, placing them in Penn's, exchanging most of their fully functional parts with his damaged and malfunctioning components.

Their directive had changed—and there was no way Rippen, or anyone else was going to change it ever again.

* * *

“She needs a blood transfusion, _immediately_ _._ ” The doctor said. “I don't know how she managed to be this incredibly lucky so far, but if we don't turn up with a donor soon, her luck's going to run out.”

“What's her type?” Sashi asked.

“It's actually the same as yours, but--”

Sashi held out her arm. “Take it. Take as much as you need of it. Every last drop you need to save her!”

The doctor hesitated. “Ms. Kobayashi, are you sure you wish to--”

That same arm grabbed them by the collar of their labcoat. “Do it. **Now.”**

They sped her through the process. Sashi signed every last release form and permit the hospital needed of her. She laid down on a bed, a tube in her arm siphoning away her blood, to be fed to the pale, weak “girl” in the bed next to hers.

They stopped when they couldn't take anymore without risking Sashi's health. By that point she was feeling far too faint and dizzy to question anything the nurses told her, doing every single thing they told, forcing her body to move and cooperate as much as it could, up until she passed out from the blood loss.

She woke up to a nurse checking her vitals. She felt like complete and utter crap, her whole body feeling useless and dead, but her brain was racing, her heart pounding as hard as it could in its chest.

The nurse worriedly looked at Sashi. “Are you okay, Ms. Kobayashi?”

“How is she?”

“How is who, Ms.--”

“You know who I'm talking about!” She croaked.

The nurse smiled. “She'll make it, Ms. Kobayashi. Now, we have to make sure you do, too...”

Sashi grunted, and went along with whatever the nurse told her to do, whatever the doctors told her to do, most of what her friends and family asked her to do until they finally released her from the hospital.

The android wasn't there at her welcome home party. Penn and Boone assured her they were fine, but Sashi could tell something was making them antsy.

No one would tell her what, though.

* * *

“Sashi.”

This would have been where Sashi would say their name back, but she realized, after all the talk they'd had about the android, not once had there been any mention about their name. She looked at Penn and Boone, silently asking them the question.

“I do not have a designation.” The android explained suddenly. “I am waiting on you to grant me one, Sashi.”

Sashi turned back to them. She stepped forward, looked at the android.

They were still wearing the headscarf to hide her metallic skull and the lack of artificial skin; a cheap dress had been thrown over their figure, loose to try and hide the extent of the missing skeletal structures underneath, like the massive, obvious gap in their side; their eyes were still that unnerving, inhuman pure black.

A memory flashed through her mind--the android, badly damaged after having nearly torn themselves completely apart, carrying a just barely functioning but alive Penn in their arms--and the name came to her.

“Valkyrie.” Sashi said. “Your name is Valkyrie.”

Valkyrie smiled and bowed. “Thank you, Sashi.”

Sashi smiled back. “You're welcome.”

“Woo!” Boone threw his arms up in the air. “I'm happy your mommy finally gave you a name, Val; I was getting tired of having to call you 'the android' all the time!”

Sashi glared at Boone. “I am not Val's mommy!”

Penn chuckled. “Well, you kinda are, actually; I mean, she does _literally_ have your blood running through her veins.”

Sashi glared at Penn. “Oh, and I guess this means you two are siblings now?”

“Actually, given Penn's extreme seniority over me in both years functional and production statistics, the age gap is closer to what most parents would have with their children.” Valkyrie said.  


Penn smiled. “I think they mean to say I'm more of their daddy, and we're her parents!”

Sashi groaned and closed her eyes. “Let's just get to the mission already…” She turned to Valkyrie. “Val, you going to be fine here?”

Valkyrie nodded. “Yes; Phyllis is working on replacement components and tuning me to be better functioning, so it would be beneficial for me to stay in the Odyssey.”

Sashi nodded and passed her by to the zap platform. “Good.”

Penn coughed. “Mommy.”

Sashi gritted her teeth and didn't say another word.

* * *

“Fight me!”

The fight had been worrying to see when it started, now it had gone somewhere between the realms of sad, mildly concerning, and just plain funny. Boone kept on watching intently, trying his best not to smirk or snigger. Penn grinned, foregoing blinking to watch every single detail of the “battle” before his eyes.

Valkyrie just stood helplessly, hands raised in front of her, worry all over her face. She never did quite get the hang of turning off emotions like Penn did.

Sashi stood three feet away from her, her hands were balled into fists, nails digging into her palms so hard she was already drawing blood.

She looked at Valkyrie.

Her curly hair was still a disorganized mess as ever, a brown mop of curls purposefully cut short, their tips all glowing with gold or purple highlights. Her leather jacket was still thrown over her purple dress, her mismatched stockings hanging as low or as high as their worn garters would let them. Her expression was one she'd seen on Penn, almost exactly the same if it weren't for her brown eyes.

“Fight me!” Sashi yelled again, her voice hoarse, her throat from all the shouting she'd done earlier.

“I don't want to!” Valkyrie wailed, as if repeating it would work this time.

“You want to be a hero so badly, right? Well I'll let you be one as soon as you beat me in a fight!” Sashi snapped. The menacing tone was badly mangled by the way her voice cracked and rasped.

“Mom, can't we please just figure out some other way?”

“ _No!”_

Up in the catwalks, Phyllis sighed and shook her head. At the very least, they'd chosen to have this mother-daughter spat after their respective missions.


End file.
